


Parallel Equilibrium

by violetmessages



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Action/Adventure, Aliens, Case Fic, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mystery, Retcon (Torchwood), Season/Series 02, Team as Family, Torchwood One, questionable science
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:40:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27222112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violetmessages/pseuds/violetmessages
Summary: Torchwood Three finds itself in the possession of a box. A box that looks eerily familiar to Ianto Jones.Too bad he can't remember where he's seen it before.
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Lisa Hallett/Ianto Jones
Comments: 20
Kudos: 77





	Parallel Equilibrium

**Author's Note:**

> A HUGE thank you to Nik for beta reading and helping me with this fic. It wouldn't be half as good without you. You're a star! Also thank you so much to Jacklynn for reading over this, answering my Torchwood One questions, and checking my characterizations.

Ianto shifted the bag in his hand, and entered his flat. He stepped neatly over the small bamboo plant that Soren kept moving in front of the door and pushed it to the side with his foot. He’d have to ‘gently’ remind Soren that they actually needed to be able to enter the flat at times. 

He dropped the bag onto a nearby chair and toed off his shoes. 

“Lisa!” he called out. “I’ve got the butter you asked for. They’ve raised the price of it again - I swear they’re doing it every week.”

“Stop complaining, you sound like my grandfather,” came her voice from the other room, mellowed with fond amusement.

Shaking his head, he shrugged out of his coat to hang in the closet. Turning his head, he saw Lisa walk out of the kitchen towards him. Smiling, she thrust a spoon towards his mouth. 

“Here - try this and tell me if it needs more salt.” 

He bent forward and tasted the soup. As the rich spices of the broth hit his tongue, he discovered that it made the horrid taste of cauliflower almost unrecognizable. 

“It’s excellent as usual,” he complimented her.

“Yeah, well, it better be.” She smirked. “Only one of us can cook, and it isn’t you. You can’t live on Chinese takeaway for your entire life.”

“You can if you try.”

“Well, _you_ can if you want heart disease,” she retorted. “And you need to eat more vegetables!”

Ianto grinned as she stalked back into the kitchen. Following her inside, he went to work setting the table while she finished cooking. When he was done, he sat down and watched her adoringly as she bent down and pulled out a tray from the oven. She was wearing his only pair of tracksuit bottoms - probably nicked from his dresser when he wasn’t home. Rachel had made him buy them for an away day and he’d never bothered to throw them out. 

At least they were being used. 

“No Soren today?” Lisa asked as she brought the food over. “I know he doesn’t eat meat all the time, but I made enough if he wants some.”

“No, he said he’s going on a date.” He shrugged. “Although, now that I think about it, that’s probably just code for - I don’t want to be the third wheel at Lisa and Ianto’s daily dinners.”

“Poor Soren,” she said, biting into a slice of bread. “I have been spending every day here for the last three weeks.”

“Oh, he doesn’t mind. And neither do I,” Ianto assured her. “I like waking up next to you in the morning.”

Lisa smiled and took his hand. She gave it a little squeeze, and he grinned back at her. 

“Me too. I wish we could do it every day.”

Neither spoke for a minute, then Lisa shot her head back up.

“Oh, Ianto, I forgot to tell you! We found this really interesting AAO today,” she said

“AAO?”

“Artifact of Alien Origin. It was so weird - I mean I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s the size of a brick, and it looks like it’s made of steel. But it didn’t weigh a thing. I mean, I used the Analytical Balance, but it didn’t give off a proper mass,” she said, eyes twinkling in excitement. 

“Did you know what it was?” he asked. 

“Nope!” Lisa said, her voice animated. “I’m really curious about this one. I think I’m going to talk to Gulia and ask if I can go on loan to the Research Department for this one.”

“Gulia’ll let you?”

“I think so! Sometimes if any of the Acquisitions people get really attached to an AAO, they send them on loan for a couple weeks. We have an excess of agents anyway,” she explained. “So I can take a few weeks off and help in Research.”

“So you’ll be preoccupied for the next few weeks then. Should I be jealous of the Research department? ” he joked. Lisa narrowed her eyebrows at him in a teasing frown. 

“Excuse me, Mr. I’m a PA Jones. You spend an awful amount of time with Yvonne. Are you sure you haven’t been preoccupied with her?” 

“I think Yvonne would rip my bollocks off,” he said, and Lisa snickered. “But, I suppose she is my type.”

“Oh?” she asked, dangerously. 

“Elder women,” he winked. 

Lisa smacked him on the arm. 

“Excuse me! You better not be calling me old!” she teased. “I thought you loved me!”

“I do,” he responded honestly and reached across the table to kiss her. She slid out of her chair and dropped into his lap, meals abandoned, and continued to kiss him, tongue moving in the way that made Ianto’s toes curl. 

“Still thinking of calling me old?” 

“Never.”

* * *

“The Rift scanner is showing radiation from over there,” said Gwen. She held the device in her hands and pointed it away from her, into a row of bushes lining the path they were walking across. 

“Of course it’s in the bushes,” Ianto grumbled. He extracted a pair of latex gloves and a plastic bag emblazoned with the Torchwood logo. “Why can’t the Rift ever drop it near our front door?”

“Maybe shout that into the Bay and it’ll listen to you,” Gwen said, suppressing a grin. Ianto rolled his eyes and pulled on his gloves, walking briskly to where the scanner indicated. He rummaged through the bushes, angrily muttering to himself about forming a union, until he pulled out a small metal box and dropped it into the plastic storage bag. 

Gwen pulled out a black recording device and pressed the button on the top.

“Medium sized metal-looking artifact, looks to be about the size of a brick,” she said into the device. “Ianto, roughly how much does it weigh?”

“Feels weightless,” he said. 

“Feels weightless. Retrieved on July fourteenth at around three-thirty in the afternoon. Found in Bute Park. End of recording.”

“You know, I swear I’ve seen this before,” Ianto said, eyebrows furrowed. “I just don’t remember where.”

“Maybe you saw something like it in the archives?” Gwen offered. 

Ianto shook his head, looking puzzled. 

“I would remember if I saw it in the archives,” he said. He racked his brain, trying to remember any vague memory of the mysterious object. 

“Well, you can check again when we get back to the Hub. I’m starving!” Gwen said, interrupting his musing, and she walked off. Ianto trailed behind her reluctantly to the parked SUV. He placed the bag delicately in the backseat, and they took off, careening through the streets of Cardiff. 

When they entered the Hub, Jack made eye-contact with Ianto through the glass of his office and swiftly exited it to meet them. 

“Good retrieval?” he asked, jogging over to where they entered. 

“Slow day?” Ianto responded. “How much paperwork have you finished?”

Jack mimed gagging. 

“I’m guessing none of it has been done then?”

“How can I get anything done without a gorgeous Welsh accent encouraging me on?” Jack said salaciously. “ _Oh, Jack, just like that! Press that pen down harder. Fill it out._ ”

“Shut up! You’re making me sick!” Owen called from the Autopsy Bay. “Can we please unionize before they stop just flirting and start fucking in front of us.”

“You aren’t allowed to unionize; it’s in your contracts,” Jack responded, sounding very pleased with himself. He leaned against Tosh’s desk, ruffling her hair until she batted him away. 

“Alright, Gwen - give the artifact to Tosh and finish your report. Tosh, can you examine it and give it to Ianto for archiving,” Jack ordered. 

Tosh nodded at him absently and turned back to her computer. 

“Sure,” Gwen said, and placed the plastic bag containing the artifact on Tosh’s desk, before walking back to her own. Jack turned towards Ianto and looked at him with pleading eyes. 

“Order lunch and make some coffee?” he asked.

“I’ll only make coffee after you finish those reports.”

Jack gave him another pleading look, but Ianto shook his head. 

“Fine!” Jack said, rolling his eyes, and he walked away groaning. 

“Chinese okay with everyone?” Ianto yelled out. After hearing a grunt from Owen and a faint yes from Tosh and Gwen, he headed up towards the Tourist Office, planning on ordering from there. 

It had been a few days since any of them were unoccupied enough to pay attention to it, and he was sure most of the residents of Cardiff had realized that it wasn’t a real tourist office. In fact, he had once overheard a conversation in the grocery store that suggested that many thought it was a front for a crime syndicate. 

Ianto settled into the seat and dialed the phone. Shortly after he placed the call ordering lunch, he saw the SUV race down the Plass. He caught a glimpse of Jack, who was driving at a breakneck speed per usual. 

_Probably a Rift alert_ , he thought, and went back to thumbing through a magazine at his desk. 

When the food finally arrived, he carried it through the entrance and saw that both Jack and Owen had not returned yet. 

“Food’s here,” he shouted, and made for the table. Sitting down, he stuck a napkin into his collar and opened his food.

Gwen arrived a second later and grabbed a carton. 

“Thanks, Ianto!” she said, shoveling noodles rapidly into her mouth. 

“Hungry?” he asked. “Calm down, you might choke.”

“Shuddup,” she mumbled.

Tosh joined them and sat down next to him. 

“Thanks!” she said, and pulled her chopsticks apart. “Did you know that the artifact you brought in today is fascinating.” 

“Oh?” Gwen responded, mouth still full of food. 

“Yes. It doesn’t seem to have any mass, yet it looks to be made of some kind of metal that we’ve never encountered before.”

“That’s odd,” Ianto said. “I thought that I’d seen it before. I suppose not then?”

“Whatever it is, it doesn’t seem to have any clear function. It doesn’t have any on or off buttons, and there’s no observable latch to open it. For all intents and purposes, it’s an ordinary metal solid that just doesn’t weigh anything,” Tosh remarked. 

“Maybe Jack’s seen it before,” Gwen says. “He could identify it - or at least figure out what material it’s made of.”

The Hub alarms cut her off, signaling that Jack and Owen had arrived. A few minutes later, they both appeared, looking distinctly ruffled.

“We just bagged a dead Weevil. Only it’s technically still alive.” Owen declared. 

“What?” he asked, putting down his fork. 

“How can a Weevil be both dead and alive?” asked Gwen, eyes widened in shock. 

“No idea. It looks like it’s been dead for about three hours. It’s not responding to any stimuli, and it’s got no pulse. But it’s still warm, and the body isn’t going through any of the stages of rigor mortis. I just tested it for brain activity, and it’s got plenty,” said Owen. 

“But how can it be dead and still have brain activity?” Tosh asked. She sat down her carton and looked at Owen intently.

“No idea. We don’t know if something’s reanimating them or they’re under some kind of trance. It looks like the body is in stasis,” Owen responded. 

“Well what can we do?” Gwen asked, concerned.

“Nothing yet. But if it can happen to Weevil, it can probably happen to humans too.” Jack said sternly. “I want this to be the number one priority right now. After you’re done eating, I want Ianto to go search the archives for any past examples. Gwen - you can help him. Don’t worry about any reports right now.”

“Where did you find the Weevil?” Ianto asked. 

“Bute Park,” responded Owen, who had sunk into one of the chairs. “Usual stop, near the center with all those bushes and shite.”

Ianto turned to look at Gwen, who was wearing the same expression that he was. 

“We found the artifact we brought in today there. In that exact spot,” he said. 

“Then it may be related,” Tosh responded. “I’ll run it through more tests later - see if it’s responsible for some of this.”

Jack nodded. “Owen, you know what to do. I’ll be on Rift wrangling duty today - that way the rest of you can focus on this.”

“Got it, Jack. We’ll figure it out,” Gwen said. She looked at him with an apprehensive expression, and he tried to give her a reassuring smile. 

“Alright, kids. Finish eating and get to work.”

* * *

Ianto walked into Yvonne’s office holding a PDA and a large coffee cup. He entered the room and placed the cup on her desk. 

“Good morning, Yvonne!” he said cheerfully to her. 

Yvonne looked up from her computer and smirked. “Does it look like I’m having a good morning?”

“Well, I’ve brought you coffee, haven’t I? Shall I read you your schedule for the day?”

Yvonne nodded in response, and Ianto turned on the PDA, scrolling to her schedule. 

“Today you have a meeting with the Prime Minister at eleven about the Jathaa Sunglider Project. Then you’ve got the yearly budget discussion with Whitehall at one. Amala Pari wanted to talk with you about a new project, and I’ve penciled her in at three. Oh and also, I just wanted to remind you of the yearly Torchwood branches meeting. Neither Jack Harkness nor Archie seem very keen on attending. I’ll try again to convince them today, but if I can’t, I’ll tell them to take it up with you.”

“The other branches are an embarrassment. Threaten to cut their funding if they don’t join,” Yvonne responded curtly. She went back to typing.

“Will do. Thanks, Yvonne,” Ianto said. 

He walked out of her office and into his smaller one. Plopping down onto the seat, he mentally braced himself for a conversation with the other two Torchwood directors. It was a task one had to prepare extensively for. 

Archie was _odd._ No one seemed to know his last name, and he took great offense at being called anything other than Archie. He also tended to sidetrack conversations easily, not willing to speak about anything else until he had finished. A simple phone call with Archie could take hours, presumably why dealing with him was always shuffled off to the assistant.

Jack Harkness on the other hand, was a completely different story. He also had the habit of getting sidetracked, but instead of talking about aliens or fish, he would tell the most inappropriate sexual stories. He would flirt outrageously with anyone, with the goal probably being to disarm the person into forgetting their point. Sometimes he wouldn’t even pick up the phone, shuffling it off to a grumpy man who would hang up after five seconds or to an angry woman who would tell him to fuck off. 

Regardless of the circumstances, he would have to somehow convince both of them. Ianto decided to call Archie first - the lesser of two evils. 

“Good morning!” he said cheerfully. “May I speak to Archie?”

“Aye, you’re talking to him,” Archie’s scratchy voice came out. “Whaddya want?”

“I’m calling on behalf of Director Hartman to invite you to the yearly Torchwood branch meeting. It’s currently scheduled in two weeks on the twelfth. You haven’t responded to any of the emails we’ve sent.”

“I dunno what the fuck that is. Email sounds like a bloody alien. Actually, that reminds me of this time that a-”

“-Archie, would you mind telling me if you’re planning on attending,” Ianto cut him off.

“I didn’t finish my story! We were attacked by this goblin-looking thing. Ten feet wide, carryin’ a club in each arm - and it had ten of ‘em you see.” Archie sniffled. “We had to shoot each arm until they fell off. And the murderous brute wouldn’t stop them.

“Archie-”

“-No, laddie!” he thundered over the phone. “Armless, he stood. And he wouldn’t die! We shot cannons at him until finally - just finally we led him to the lake and Nessie ate him. That’s the mark of a true Torchwood employee. No need for meetings and reports and all that nonsense. Just pure bravery!”

Ianto held the phone against his ear and shoulder and rubbed his eyes as Archie ranted on. He’d been talking all of sixty seconds when Archie broke into his first story. 

“Archie!” Ianto finally interrupted as he took a moment to pause. “Can you please tell me that you are coming to the meeting?” 

“And why would I do that?” Archie said sourly. 

“Director Hartman has included budget recommendations in the list of topics to discuss during the meeting, and your presence is highly recommended if you would like to have your yearly endowments remain the same,” Ianto said, a calm voice masking the rage he was feeling inside. 

Archie was silent for a moment. “Aye, so she’s cutting our funding if we don’t show up. Fine, laddie. I’ll be there.” 

Then the call ended with a click, dial tone ringing in Ianto’s ear. He put the phone back and rubbed his forehead. One down, one to go. 

Unfortunately, this was the harder one. After a while, Archie needled himself into a corner, and it was easy to convince him. Jack, on the other hand, seemed to never be unsteady. It was a challenge that Ianto was not ready to face without coffee. 

He took the elevator down to the first staff room, armed with his special coffee blend. Filling the machine with the grounds, he placed his favorite mug below the stream. Rich, hot, flavorful coffee poured out of the spout, and Ianto smiled. 

Coffee really was the magic that kept his life together. It gave him the motivation to keep going after talking to Archie, and it gave him enough energy to deal with Jack Harkness. 

He spotted Sameer, who walked over to talk to him. 

“Think you can make me a cup?” he asked.

“I can’t,” Ianto said apologetically. “I don’t have the time to take an extended break today.”

“Bollocks,” said Sameer. “Oh, I meant to tell you; Martina wanted to do a whole lunch thing today. She said she’d call you.”

“Yeah, alright. Sounds like fun,” Ianto responded. “I’ve got to run, wish me luck.”

“See you then.” Sameer grinned. 

At least he had something to look forward to, he thought, as he trudged back glumly to his office.

He picked up the phone and dialed, hoping desperately that it would take far less time than normal. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t pick up.

Ianto put the phone down, planning on calling again in a few minutes. He turned his attention to the stack of remaining paperwork on his desk and started to fill it out until the phone rang. 

“Hello, this is Ianto, Yvonne’s assistant. How can I help you?” he said after picking it up.

“Ianto, it’s me, Martina. Wanna go for lunch in an hour?”

“Yeah, Sameer said you’d call. I’m free; where are you planning?” 

“That new fusion restaurant they opened a few weeks ago,” Martina answered. “Lisa says she’s coming too, so if you want, the two of you can meet us there.”

“Who else is coming?” Ianto asked.

“Guleranna too,” Martina said. “Anyway, I’ll let you get back to work now, see you there!”

“Bye, Martina,” Ianto replied, and hung up the phone. He finished the next page of paperwork and finally stopped putting off calling Torchwood Three. 

Ianto dialed the phone and heard it ring for a few seconds. Just when he was about to hang up, a voice came out. 

“Hello,” the man said.

“Good afternoon. May I speak to Director Harkness?” Ianto replied politely.

“That’s me,” came the man’s amused voice. 

“I’m calling on behalf of Director Hartman to invite you to the yearly Torchwood branch meeting. It’s currently scheduled in two weeks on the twelfth. You haven’t responded to any of the emails we’ve sent.”

“I thought the non-response was enough to make my point clear. The Rift doesn’t pause activity, so that I can attend a ridiculous meeting that could be summarized in an email.”

Ianto suppressed the urge to groan and instead pressed slightly down on his temples. 

“Director Harkness-”

“-Jack,” he cut him off. 

“Pardon?” Ianto asked. 

“You can just call me Jack. And what should I call you?” he said, pivoting the subject. 

“Sir, if you don’t mind, I’d just like to ask you for your attendance in the meeting. Director Hartman would like to remind you that budgeting is one of the discussion topics on the agenda during this meeting, and your presence is highly recommended, so that you can give an accurate account of the funding you will need for next year,” Ianto said before Jack could get a word in. 

Jack was silent for a while. Then he responded in a sharp voice. 

“I see,” Jack said, voice pinched. “I guess I don’t have a choice then.”

“Thank you, sir. Your schedule and all travel plans will be sent to you by email tonight. Have a great day!” Ianto said. 

“Yeah, bye,” Jack said, and hung up the phone. Ianto placed the phone back down, relieved that it hadn’t taken as long as last time. Yvonne was right - the only motivation needed was a slash of their budgets. 

He proceeded to fiddle around for the next few minutes until his lunch break, where he went downstairs to meet Lisa. She was standing by the door, and when she saw him, she pecked him on the cheek. 

“Hello, dear,” she said. “How’s your day going?”

“Going alright,” Ianto responded. She took his hand, and they walked across the street towards the restaurant. 

“Let’s hope Martina’s picked a good one this time,” Lisa said, walking inside. 

“Yeah, remember the Italian restaurant fiasco?” he joked. They sat down where Martina was, laughing. 

“What are you laughing about?” Martina asked. Ianto winked at her. 

“D’Arginio’s.” 

Guleranna, who just walked in with Sameer, groaned. Sameer rolled his eyes. 

“I thought we agreed to never speak of that again!” Martina cried. “That wasn’t exactly my finest moment.”

“What about the time you tried to flirt with the cab driver and tripped on nothing when you tried to get in?” Guleraana offered. 

“What about the time you asked out Mark by phone, and he didn’t even realize it was you?” Lisa giggled. 

“Or the time you told your hairdresser that your name was Daisy as a joke and didn’t correct her for three years because you were too embarrassed?” Ianto adds. 

“What is this, pick-on-Martina-day?” she exclaimed. “Rude, honestly.”

“We’re just joking,” Sameer said, grinning. “Thanks for getting us together.”

“Of course,” she said. “We don’t do this enough.”

“That’s Torchwood for you. Gets in your head and then you never let go,” Guleraana said.

“That’s gloomy, Guleranna,” said Martina.

“But the truth,” he said. “I hear about so many things, even if I don’t have clearance for them. It's because they never notice me.” 

“Guleraana, don’t be so maudlin all the time,” Sameer clicked his tongue. “Yeah, it’s kinda shit, like all jobs, but who else gets to work with what we do?”

“The other branches of Torchwood?” Ianto offered. Lisa laughed. 

“The other branches of Torchwood are a geriatric librarian and four people who chase after alien shit,” she said. “I bet you could smuggle in an alien, and neither one of them would notice.”

“Plus, one of them is in Wales,” said Martina.

“Oi!” Ianto said. “I’m from Wales!”

“Oh, yes, we forgot about our resident Welshboy,” Sameer teased. “Didn’t you leave because you hated it?”

Ianto glared at him. 

“Boys!” Martina smirked. “Let’s change the subject.”

“Did you hear that Gareth and Adeola are shagging?” Lisa said. 

Martina blushed. “Robina said she caught them in the men’s room. Pantsless and everything!”

“I don’t want to hear about Gareth pantsless,” Sameer complained. 

“I do!” Lisa teased. 

Sameer laughed loudly. “Watch out, Ianto, your bird’s got her eye on someone else!”

“Good thing that Gareth looks like me then,” Ianto responded, winking at Guleraana. Sameer slapped Ianto on the back, and Lisa smirked at him, clearly amused. 

“I didn’t know Gareth liked Adeola,” said Guleraana.

“Yeah, apparently he’s wanted to date her ever since they met. But Adeola doesn’t want a relationship, so they’re shagging instead,” said Lisa. 

He didn’t think he could ever shag the same person again and again without catching feelings. It didn’t make sense to him. He’d already caught intense feelings for Lisa by their third date. He was so lucky to have her. She loved him, he loved her, and he was ready to start planning their future together. 

Hell, he was even ready to tell Mum and Rhiannon, both of whom he hadn’t talked to properly in a while. He’d never thought he’d be ready to go back home - face them now that Dad had been gone for a while. But he’d do it to show Lisa that he was serious.

Sameer threw a crouton at him. 

“Stop staring at your girlfriend and tell us what you want to order,” he demanded. 

* * *

Owen called everyone into the conference room. They filed in, followed by Ianto. He carried a tray of coffees, and handed them out to everyone. 

“Thanks, love,” said Gwen, taking a large gulp from hers. 

“Of course,” Ianto responded. He sat down and looked at Owen, who stood in front of them looking harried. Owen clicked the remote, and the screen turned on, showing a Weevil scan. 

“Okay, Owen, what’s going on with the Weevil?” Jack asked. 

“Like I said, this Weevil should be dead. There’s no heartbeat, and there’s no sign of rigor mortis, even though it’s been quite a few hours since we bagged it.”

“So?” Tosh asked. 

“So it should have no brain activity. This one does though; it’s almost like it’s in a coma. But patients in comas are connected to life support systems. This bugger is just sustaining himself, all on his own,” said Owen

“And this isn’t something that Weevils are naturally capable of doing?” Gwen asked. 

“Not that we’ve ever seen before,” said Owen. “And we have reports of Weevils, all the way back to the eighteenth century. This isn’t some quirk of Weevil biology.”

“So what does that mean for Brad?” Jack asked. 

“Brad?” Gwen raised an eyebrow. 

“Don’t like Brad?” He grinned. Gwen wrinkled her nose at him. 

“Alright, if we could get back to the topic at hand,” Owen interrupted. “If a patient wasn’t breathing, I’d just attach a ventilator. Because technically, you aren’t considered dead until there isn’t any brain activity left.”

“But the Weevil does,” Tosh said.

“Yup,” Owen said. “And, very oddly, the body is still warm. It’s been at least six hours - it should be ice-cold by now.”

“How long can you survive without breathing?” Ianto asked. 

“Brain activity should have stopped after ten seconds without blood flow. With a ventilator, you can go on for much longer. But again, there’s no ventilator attached,” Owen said. 

“Then what’s keeping it alive?” Gwen asked. 

“I’m not sure. There’s some sort of external support happening - like I said, brain activity shuts down after about ten seconds after cardiac arrest,” Owen said, looking concerned. “There’s obviously some kind of alien interference, but nothing that I can pick up with any scanner.”

“Could this be similar to the resurrection gauntlet?” asked Jack. 

“We could sense the energy transferred with the glove. There’s no detectable energy given off by this body. And, if you remember, the glove brought people back from the dead. This isn’t doing that; it’s keeping them in some kind of suspended animation,” said Owen. 

“Thanks, Owen. Keep working at it,” Jack said. “Toshiko, any news about that box?”

“I’ve run all of the characteristics through every program we have,” she answered promptly. 

“And?”

“And _nothing_. It doesn’t weigh anything, it doesn’t look like anything we’ve identified, and it’s not a metal we’ve encountered before. I’m going to run some more tests on it to see if it emits any sort of radiation, but that could take a while,” said Tosh. 

“It looks very familiar for some reason.” Jack frowned.

“Ianto thought he saw it before too,” Gwen said. Everyone turned to look at him. 

“I can’t remember where I’ve seen it,” Ianto explained. “It’s just a feeling, like I know what it is.”

“Well, if you figure it out, feel free to share with the class,” Owen said sarcastically. Ianto opened his mouth to tell him to shove off when Gwen’s phone began to ring, and she picked it up.

“Hello?” Gwen said into her phone. She bit her lip. “Uh, I see. Alright, I’ll get someone to check it out right now! Thanks, Ruth!” 

“What was that?” Ianto asked. 

“Ruth from the hospital. She said they’ve got two patients who aren't breathing and keep rejecting their ventilators, but they’ve still got brain activity.”

“Fuck!” Owen cursed. “It’s spread to humans already.”

“Do we have their names?” Jack asked.

“Bethan Parry and Bronwyn Davis,” Gwen replied.

Jack turned to Tosh. “Can you-”

“-already on it,” said Tosh, typing rapidly into her PDA. “Gwen, I’m sending you their addresses.”

“Thanks, Tosh!” Gwen said, and Tosh nodded in response. 

“Get to the hospital, Owen,” ordered Jack. Owen nodded. Jack turned to look at Gwen with a smirk.

“Gwen, Ianto - how do you feel like being detectives?” He grinned. “Start with interviewing their visitors at the hospital, then check out their places for Rift activity. If the disease is spreading from the Rift, then we don’t need to worry about the box anymore.” 

“I’ll get the Rift scanners,” Ianto offered. 

“Yup,” said Owen. “Let’s go, you two.”

“Come on, Mulder,” Gwen said to Ianto, rising out of her chair. “We’ve got a case to solve.”

“Why am I Mulder?” Ianto complained, following her and Owen out of the room. 

“Because I want to be Scully!”

* * *

Ianto drained the last dregs of his lukewarm coffee before turning back to his work. The Torchwood branch meetings were going to start in three days. If it ran the same way as last year, it was going to end in disaster.

There was still so much preparation to be done. Yvonne wanted extra security, armed guards, and a splash shield - probably due to a previous meeting where Archie had thrown rotten tomatoes at her. The whole affair was headache-inducing for everyone involved, making him wonder why anyone even bothered trying to do it. 

He rubbed his burning eyes, tired from the late shifts he’d been putting in. He wanted to see Lisa tonight. The research project had her hooked, and he hadn’t properly talked to her in a week. They’d come home late, both exhausted from work, and collapse into bed.

The ringing of the phone interrupted him from his whining. He picked it up. 

“Hello, this is Ianto, Yvonne’s assistant. How can I help you?” he said. 

“Ianto, this is Dr. Richards from the Medical Center. We’ve had an incident with Amala Pari, from Research. I need to talk with Yvonne immediately,” she said. 

“Of course. I’ll patch you in,” he responded, and added Yvonne to the call. 

“Yvonne, this is Dr. Richards from the Medical Center. She wants to talk to you about Amala Pari,” he said. 

“Of course, thanks Ianto,” Yvonne responded. 

This was normally the time when he hung up, but Amala Pari was in charge of the project Lisa was working on. He was curious, and mostly, he wanted to make sure Lisa was all right. An incident with the head researcher might mean trouble for her, so he put himself on mute and stayed on the call. 

“Look, Yvonne, there’s been some kind of mishap with the proto-nanogene project. Amala - well she’s technically dead.”

“What!” Yvonne demanded.

“No, wait,” said Dr. Roberts in a hurry. “She’s not breathing but there’s still brain activity. When we attempted to resuscitate her and hook her up to a ventilator, her body rejected it. But she’s still alive. It’s like she’s in some kind of stasis, where her brain is still functioning, but she has no heartbeat.”

“Okay-” Yvonne said calmly. “-Okay, here’s what we’ll do. We don’t want to alarm the staff so why don’t we just quarantine the research personnel associated with the project and not tell anyone. We’ll talk about next steps later. Hopefully, it’ll die out with Amala, and it’s not going to spread.”

“I don’t have knowledge of nanogenes, but-”

“-you don’t need to know anything about that,” interrupted Yvonne harshly. “Just do what I say.”

“Alright. Thanks, Yvonne,” Dr. Richards said, and hung up. The dial tone rang in Ianto’s ears. 

The news sounded grim to Ianto, but he didn’t dare call Lisa yet. He would have to wait until they got home, where his calls wouldn’t be screened. He was pretty sure that listening in on a private conversation would lead to some consequences. 

Then he realized that if everyone associated with that project was being quarantined, Lisa would as well. Maybe she would call him, let him know before they planned to go home. He was anxious all day, hoping that she wasn’t infected with whatever killed Amala. 

However when he left that evening and walked to his car, there stood Lisa, looking grim. She reached up to give him a kiss, but the worried expression on her face didn’t change.

“I have something to tell you,” she said.

“Me too,” he responded. “Later, though.”

The car ride to Lisa’s flat was filled with a tense silence. The cheery tone of the radio was discordant with Ianto’s mood, which had been making up disaster scenarios all day. They walked quietly until they reached her flat. Lisa’s hands shook as she turned the key, and when they entered, she sunk down on her couch immediately, head leaning back on the armrest. Ianto sat on the other end and pulled her feet into his lap. 

“Rough day?” he asked. 

Lisa groaned, pulling her elbow to cover her face. Ianto patted her soft leg encouragingly. 

“There’s something fishy going on,” she said. “The entire research team I was working on left the facility, and I was told to run back to Acquisitions. This was meant to be a month-long project, and it ended in two weeks.”

“I might have an explanation for that,” Ianto said. He proceeded to tell her about the eavesdropped phone call and Yvonne’s quarantining decision. Lisa groaned again, shifting onto her side.

“What do you think caused it?”

“I don’t remember Amala’s project very clearly; I was never given that much clearance. I only helped identify what it was, and we found out they were nanogenes; that’s all. Why would she collapse? She always followed lab protocol; she wouldn’t enter the lab without any protections. Those nanogenes were supposed to be contained, and her lab was secure.”

“Why weren’t you quarantined?” 

“I’m not sure,” Lisa said, nervously scratching her head. “Maybe because I’m not technically part of the department?”

“That doesn’t make sense - you were exposed to it as well.” 

“Yes!” she said, jumping upright. “Which means you probably will be too. I think you shouldn’t spend the night.”

“But if you haven’t been quarantined, then they must think you’re safe!” he complained.

“Look, Ianto ,I just want to be careful, alright?” Lisa said, eyes full of concern. “There’s something else going on, and I don’t want you to get infected too. I don’t want to suspect Torchwood, but clearly, there are bigger things at play than we realize.”

“But-”

“-no buts. I want you to be safe,” Lisa said. Then she kicked him lightly until he got off the couch.

She blew him a kiss, and he mimed grabbing it. She winked at him, then waved her hand goodbye. 

“Go spend some quality flat-mate time with Soren. I’ll call you before I sleep.”

“Bye, Lisa,” he said glumly, and exited her flat. 

* * *

Owen pulled up the hospital and parked haphazardly in the middle of two spots. He ran out, carrying his bag with him, and sprinted inside. Gwen and Ianto took a little more time,first correcting Owen’s poor parking job, then walking calmly inside to ask for directions. The receptionist pointed them towards the long-term care ward, and they entered it. 

“Torchwood. Who’s here for Bethan Parry and Bronwyn Davis?” Gwen called out. 

A man and a woman who were sitting next to each other got up. They rushed towards Gwen. 

“Us - we’re with them,” the man said shakily. The woman wiped a tear from her eye. “What’s wrong with them? The doctor won’t tell us anything.”

“They’re both in comas,” Gwen lied. “I’m so sorry for your loss. We’re trying to figure out what happened to them, and we'd like to talk to you separately. What are your names?”

“I’m Ifan Parry,” the man said. “This is Sian Brooks.”

“Sian, could we talk to you first?” Gwen asked gently. Sian nodded, and Ianto pointed to an empty room. “This way.”

Ianto filled a cup of water and handed it to Sian as she sat on an empty hospital bed. Gwen sat opposite her and gave her a friendly smile. 

“Do you know them well?” Gwen asked. Sian nodded sniffling. She took a sip from her water. 

“I’m Bronwyn’s girlfriend. No one will tell me anything - they won’t even tell Ifan, and he’s married to Bethan!” she exclaimed, looking miserable. 

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. We’re trying to figure out more; we just need you to answer a few questions,” Gwen responded quickly. “Could you tell us more about what happened?”

“Their colleagues said they collapsed when they came back from lunch. I don’t understand how - they were only twenty-seven! Bronwyn’s always been healthy,” Sian said, bursting into tears. Ianto offered her a tissue, and she wiped her eyes slowly. 

Gwen rubbed her arm sympathetically and asked, “Do you know where they went for lunch?”

“I don’t know,” Sian said, sniffling. “Maybe the kebab place near where they worked.”

“Thank you! And I’m sorry for your loss,” Gwen said and escorted Sian out the door. A moment later, she returned with Ifan. 

“We just want to ask you a few questions, alright,” Gwen told him. Ianto nodded helpfully. “Do you know what happened to them?”

“Bethan’s coworker Mark saw both of them collapse and called an ambulance. But I don’t know anything else - they won’t let me see her! She’s healthy; she’s not even in her thirties yet. How could she have collapsed like that!” Ifan cried. Gwen patted him reassuringly. 

“I’m sorry, Ifan; we don’t know. We’re trying to figure that out. Now, do you know where they went to lunch?” Gwen asked. 

“Yummy’s,” Ifan said hoarsely. “Bethan wanted to ask her if she and Sian would go on vacation with us in Majorca.”

“And where is Yummy’s?” Gwen asked. 

“It’s that kebab place,” Ifan explained. “You know, the new one, near Bute Park.”

Gwen and Ianto looked at each other in shock. Bute Park - where they found the Weevil and the mysterious artifact. 

“Anything else?” Ifan asked, looking a little teary. Ianto shook his head no and told him that he was free to leave. Ifan left the room, and he turned to Gwen. 

“It’s definitely connected to that thing isn’t it,” he said. Gwen nodded her head, and Ianto tapped his comm to speak. 

“Tosh, are you there?”

“Yes,” Tosh responded. 

“The two women were walking by Bute Park before they collapsed. We’re pretty sure the artifact has something to do with this,” Ianto said. 

“Shit!” he heard Tosh curse. 

“What!” he exclaimed.

“You need to come back to the Hub right now. Something’s happening to the brick!” she said. Ianto turned off his comm. 

“We need to get Owen and go back to the Hub,” he said to Gwen. They left the room in search of Owen and found him waiting for them impatiently. 

“We need to go-” Gwen said, before Owen cut her off. 

“-Yeah. I got something, I’ll tell you all in there,” he said, before running to the SUV, Gwen and Ianto behind him. Recklessly driving, Owen managed to get them back in half the time needed. They stormed in. 

“There’s something surrounding the women,” Owen announced, before sprinting to the Medbay. “I’m going to analyze it.”

“The brick is getting smaller,” Tosh said. “I keep scanning it, and it’s slowly losing surface area.” 

She turned back to her computer and went back to her research. Gwen left, presumably to look through more files, and Ianto decided to make coffee. It would help calm him down and give the others a much needed boost. 

An hour later, Owen came scurrying back from the Medbay. In his hands, he carried a vial, buzzing with what looked like insects. 

Jack joined them. He fiddled with his braces and furrowed his eyebrows. He looked exhausted, but probably so did the rest of them. 

“These are made of the same metal as that box,” Owen said. “They’re surrounding the women, and they look invisible until contained.”

“Those look like nanogenes,” Jack said. “But nanogenes don’t behave like that.”

“What are nanogenes?” Gwen asked. 

“Nanogenes are these tiny robots that can help fix your body,” Jack explained to her. “They don’t really have hospitals in the future or doctors. Just nanogenes. But these don’t look like them, and they certainly don’t behave like them.”

“Oh, it gets worse.” Owen sighed. “I vivisected the zombie Weevil, and I found out why the bodies are still warm even if none of the other parts are working.”

They all looked at him expectantly. 

“Those robots are keeping them alive to boil them. They’re slowly raising the temperature until their blood boils, and because they still have brain activity, they can feel it happening. It’s like a permanent torture that they can’t wake up from,” Owen explained. 

“That’s horrible!” Gwen said. “We have to do something!”

“I don’t know what we can do,” Ianto said wearily. “We don’t know anything about that box; I can’t find any mention of it in the Archives.”

“The radiation scanner is almost complete. I’ll have more information in a few minutes,” said Tosh. “If it gives off any radiation, that will help us identify it.”

“What if it spreads?” Gwen asked. “I mean, if it’s caused by these robots, then what if it spreads to the whole of Cardiff? Or worse?”

“One problem at a time, Gwen,” Owen groaned. 

* * *

The atmosphere at Canary Wharf over the next few days were extremely tense. Yvonne was still maintaining that nothing was wrong, except at this point all of the Research department was quarantined, including Lisa. Ianto felt worried - he had heard what had happened to Amala Pari after all, and he couldn’t even tell his friends what had happened. He wasn’t technically supposed to know. 

Three people in Admin had collapsed, all with the same symptoms, and were being treated in the Medical Center. People had started noticing, and the staff room was unusually empty, devoid of the normal chatter of casual work conversations. 

It was unfortunately the starting of the Torchwood branch meetings. Instead of being helpful, Archie decided to let him know the day before that he would be joining them tomorrow, complete with an hour-long story about the Loch Ness Monster. Today’s meeting would just be between Torchwood One and Three, a sure disaster. 

Ianto waited at the entrance for Jack Harkness. The man was supposed to have arrived at nine, but he’d been waiting for twenty minutes. He fiddled with the buttons of his suit, standing impatiently. 

Finally, a man dressed in a blue-gray greatcoat walked in, and Ianto strode towards him. 

“Good morning, sir,” he said, and stuck out his hand. “I’m Ianto.”

“Jack,” he replied, and shook Ianto’s hand. “I love a man in a suit - although I do like them out of them as well.”

“Thank you, sir,” Ianto responded flatly. “If you’ll please come this way.”

“Oh, I’ll come any way you like.” He smiled salaciously, looking at Ianto up and down. Ianto turned around silently, and Jack followed him up to the main boardroom. He opened the door and held it open for Jack. 

“After you.” 

Jack walked in. Ianto followed him into the room and took the seat closest Yvonne. The other residents in the room, Torchwood One’s department directors, looked at Jack with a mixture of disgust and shock. 

Jack sunk into the closest seat. He leaned back and lifted his feet up, laying them on the armrests of the chair next to him. He folded his hands and looked directly at Yvonne.

“Yvonne,” he acknowledged. 

“Good morning, Jack,” she responded, feigning politeness. “You’re late.”

“Well, let’s get on with it then. It better be interesting if you’ve threatened to cut my budget,” he said curtly. “Anyway, I’m only spending two days here. The Rift doesn’t exactly maintain itself.”

“Well, that’s why we give you so much money, don’t we? To hire and pay employees. Surely you’re not the only one there? Do you need more,” Yvonne mocked. 

“I have enough employees,” he said, clearly angry. “I don’t need you to tell me how to run my branch.”

“Well, with only three people there, it’s a miracle you get anything done. I can always spare a few employees - should you need them, of course.”

“No,” Jack said. “I’m fine. Let’s move on. What did we need to talk about that couldn’t be discussed in an email?”

Yvonne nodded at the security guards that lined the room, and they quietly exited, guarding the exit but ready to enter at a moment’s notice. She looked back to Jack, who was watching the whole thing with an air of boredom. 

“Well, this meeting is to foster inter-branch cooperation. We want to let our sister branches know what exactly we are doing. After all,” she said, looking directly at Jack, “we keep no secrets between branches.”

Jack did not seem fazed. He rolled his eyes and gazed back at Yvonne intently. 

“We’ll go in descending order. Three, Two, then finally One. Jack, if you wouldn’t mind presenting your yearly branch report?” she asked. 

“Fine,” Jack responded. “As you all know, there is a Rift in space and time that runs through the center of Cardiff. Sometimes things come through. Our job is to find those things and keep the general public safe. Which we’ve been doing, obviously, since Wales hasn’t been the forefront of an alien empire.”

“And?” Yvonne pushed. 

“And what?” Jack said. “That’s all we do.”

“Have there been any sightings of The Doctor?” 

“No,” he said pithily. “There have not.”

“May I remind you, Jack, that The Doctor is a dangerous-”

“Yes, I know!” said Jack. “I haven’t-”

But the rest of his sentence was cut off when David Booley collapsed onto the table. Immediately, Dr. Roberts ran to him and checked his pulse. Loud whispers broke out across the table - people surprised but not shocked. After all, it had been happening to so many people that week.

Dr. Roberts shook her head at Yvonne, and she turned to Ianto. He understood and tapped into his PDA to tell the Medical Center to bring a nurse. 

“Same as the rest,” Dr. Roberts muttered. 

“Rest of who?” Jack asked, looking alarmed. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Yvonne snapped. 

Then, Jefferson Smith and Ava Williams fell down exactly like David Booley. The rest of the room started talking loudly, worried that they might be the next. Several of them stood up in shock. 

“What the hell is going on!” Jack demanded. He looked down at his wrist cuff and started pressing buttons on it. “Is he dead!”

“No, he’s technically alive, he’s just-” said Dr. Roberts before collapsing onto the ground herself. 

“Yvonne-” Ianto started to say. 

“-there’s something else in this room, Yvonne! I can sense it,” yelled Jack. “Tell me before more people start dying!”

“There’s nothing!” Yvonne said, scrambling to keep everyone calm. “Obviously-”

“-Obviously, you're lying! Tell me the truth and maybe I can help you!” Jack snarled. He stalked up to her. “What’s going on?”

Yvonne bit her lip. Then she shook her head and said, “A project went wrong. One of our research teams managed to modify a set of thirty-eighth century nanogenes into a biological torture device. But it got out and infected her, and we don’t know how to turn them off.”

“Of course you did!” Jack growled. “You play with weapons as if they’re toys, then you wonder why you get hurt. Show me the control panel!”

“What control panel?” Yvonne asked. 

“The thing that you harvested the nanogenes from! All of them have some kind of rudimentary system, even the first kinds.”

“It’s downstairs,” Yvonne said. “Follow me.” 

She walked out of the room, followed by Jack and Ianto. Yvonne signalled at the security guards, and they joined them in the elevator. 

Ianto was secretly horrified. Not only did they manufacture a torturing device, they didn’t know how to control it, and it was let loose in the tower. 

Jack seemed outwardly horrified. His face was set in a deep frown, and he looked like he was two seconds away from murdering Yvonne. 

The elevator door opened, and they stepped out. Yvonne led the way to Amala Pari’s chained up workshop. It was clearly locked up in an effort to contain whatever was causing the deaths but had not been successful. 

She unlocked it, and there stood the artifact that Lisa had talked about. It was not a brick anymore; parts of the silver were falling off and disappearing into the air. In the middle stood a small circuit board. 

Jack strode up to the brick and began to fiddle with it. He sat in front of them, body blocking their view. 

“What the hell did your people do, Yvonne?” he muttered. 

“Can you fix it?” Ianto asked. 

“No,” he said. “I don’t know how to reprogram it. I can get the nanogenes to come back and stop infecting people, but everyone who’s already been contaminated are gone. The longer they’ve had it, the more likely they’re dead.”

“Do it then,” Yvonne ordered. 

Jack gave her a scathing look. “I’m doing it, not because you ordered me to, but because more people are going to die if I don’t. This is on your conscience.”

“I can live with my conscience,” Yvonne said. “Fix it.”

Jack turned back around and worked on the device. He pulled various tools off the side of the desk, fiddling with the box. Ianto couldn’t exactly see what he was doing. For a few minutes, everything was silent. Then Jack stood up, and little silver particles surrounded him. They flew around him in a cycling tornado before finally attaching back to the silver brick. 

He picked up the silver brick and tucked it under his arm, turning back to face the rest of them.

“Is it done?”

“They’ve come back, so anyone who’s been recently affected is fine. But anyone else is dead,” he responded. 

Ianto saw that Jack was glaring intently at Yvonne, but she didn’t seem to be fazed. 

“I’m taking this back to Cardiff. You obviously can’t be trusted to keep this,” he said, voice dripping with contempt.

Yvonne didn’t speak. 

“So, this is your research lab. What else are you keeping in here?” Jack asked. He looked around, scanning each object. Then he narrowed his eyebrows at a large circular cylinder. Yvonne stepped in front of it, trying to block it from view, but he had already seemed to have spotted it. 

“That’s a Rift Manipulator. How did you get one?” he demanded. “Don’t you know how dangerous that is!”

Yvonne nodded to the guards behind him, and they grabbed onto Jack. He pulled, thrashing wildly, all the while screaming. 

“What the fuck, let me go!”

Ianto looked at Yvonne harshly. Jack had pulled a hand away, and socked a guard in the face. Red blood dripped from his nose, and he took a step back. The guard pulled his knee up and propelled it into Jack’s stomach. He howled in pain, but the guards did not let go. 

“Yvonne!” Ianto exclaimed.

She did not look at him, instead staring intently at the fighting in front of them. Jack dropped the box, and it landed with a thud onto the ground. He flailed wildly, tugging and shoving his elbows into the guards’ chests. He pulled a guard with him, and landed onto the Rift Manipulator. 

Ianto tried to grab it before it fell, but the cylinder clattered to the ground. 

“What have you done!” Jack yelled, but it was too late. A swirling golden circle opened up above the room, wind flying everywhere. Then, he noticed an even worse sight. 

The silver box was beginning to buzz. It was vibrating vigorously. Jack seemed to notice as well. 

“You’ve reactivated it!” he yelled. 

Ianto looked to Yvonne in panic, then made a quick decision. He bent down and reached as far as he could to grab onto the box.

Wind rushed past him, as all the materials in the room spun around. Those that were small enough flew up into the air and disappeared into the vortex. Ianto held on as tight as he could, feeling his fingertips crush against the metal. 

He could feel a buzzing against his hand. Immediately as he held it, a silver fog surrounded his hand, similar to how it had surrounded Jack minutes before. 

“Give it here,” he could hear Jack yell. But he didn’t want to. He had to end this, he didn’t want anyone else taking advantage of the device. He had to get rid of it. 

If the cylinder was a Rift Manipulator, then the golden vortex above must be the Rift. 

Making up his mind, he lifted his hand, and threw the box into the Rift as hard as he could. The silver fog followed the box and it disappeared into the Rift. 

A few seconds, and the wormhole closed up. Ianto sank to the ground gasping for air. He saw Yvonne fall against the desk, shaking slightly. Panting, Jack turned to her and glared. 

“What the hell!” he roared. 

Jack kept yelling at her and didn’t notice how Yvonne tapped a finger against her nose. 

Immediately, one of the security guards behind him swung a baton across Jack’s head, knocking him clean out. He collapsed to the floor, his greatcoat spread around him. 

“Yvonne!” Ianto exclaimed. Yvonne took out a small syringe from inside her jacket, and held it aloft. She knelt down, pulling away his coat, and fluidly injecting the Retcon. 

“It has to be done. He’d never let us continue with our research otherwise,” she explained placidly. “It’s for the greater good, after all. Another chance to restart the British Empire.”

“Yvonne, the British Empire is dead!” he erupted. “And this isn’t for the greater good! This was a torturing device. How is this protecting the world from extraterrestrial threats?”

Yvonne turned to him, looking calm. He realized too late as two security guards restrained him. He fought fruitlessly against them, pulling hard to get away.

“I’m sorry, Ianto,” Yvonne said. “I like you a lot. You give me a conscience. But you can’t live with this, can you? You wouldn’t be able to work here anymore. You wouldn’t let me forget this, and you wouldn’t be able to do your job. That’s why I have to do this.”

“Yvonne, what are you doing!” he cried out. She took out another syringe and held it aloft. He tried again to get loose, shrugging his shoulders and twisting his body. 

“Hold him steady, boys. We don’t want to hurt him,” she ordered. 

“Come on, don’t do this!” he yelled. 

“I’m sorry. It’s for the greater good - I promise,” she said. Then she injected the syringe into his arm, and everything went black. 

* * *

“Guys!” Tosh’s voice called out from across the Hub. “The scanner is done. The robot things are definitely attached to that brick.”

“Can I see?” Jack asked, bounding over. “What kind of radiation is it giving off?”

“Onicrom radiation. Look, it’s all over the Hub.” She showed Jack the screen, depicting waves of orange spread out all across, coming from the artifact. 

“That’s not good.”

“It’s connected to the vials, and they’re all over the Hub. I think it’s slowly releasing more and more robots! That’s why it’s been getting smaller,” Tosh said, panicked. 

“Wait - if the robots are all around us, then are we safe?” Ianto asked. 

Immediately after he said that, Gwen collapsed to the ground. 

“Gwen!” Ianto yelled. He ran over to her and grabbed her hand, feeling the back of her head, presumably to check if she was bleeding. 

Owen rushed over, stethoscope dangling from his neck. He placed two fingers to the side of her neck. 

“She’s not breathing!” he yelled. “Help me get her to the Medbay!”

Ianto helped lift Gwen. They heaved her up and disappeared into the Medbay. Jack looked at Tosh despairingly. 

“Onicrom radiation, where have I heard that before?” he muttered to himself, running his hands through his hair wildly. “Think!”

“Look at the box!” Tosh exclaimed. “The top - it’s gone!” 

The top was completely gone. It looked less like a brick and more of a deconstructed oval shape. At the top rested a small circuit board - silicon and green - like the inside of a computer. 

“But that’s nanogene technology - that’s the inside of a nanogene control panel,” Jack said. “Those _don’t_ behave like nanogenes!”

Tosh turned to her computer and typed in “nanogene” into the database. Scrolling through quickly, she found an old file about programming them. 

“The only nanogenes Torchwood has encountered don’t look anything like them,” Tosh announced. Jack bit his lip. “They don’t act like them either.”

Jack paced around frantically as Tosh looked through the database for more clues. 

“Oh!” Jack finally yelled. “They don’t act like nanogenes because they’ve been messed with! I _have_ seen it before, but I don’t remember anything specific. Just that they’d been reprogrammed as a torture device. We just have to reprogram them!”

Just as he finished however, there came two thuds from the Medbay. 

“Owen and Ianto,” Tosh realized. Both of them ran to where they were, only to see that all three of them were on the ground, not breathing and in the same stasis. 

“It’s going to get us next,” Tosh cried. “The Hub’s been filtering our air, but it’s not going to last long! We’ll all be stuck forever.”

“We have to contain this now Tosh! We’d be letting a permanent torturing device loose in the streets of Cardiff,” said Jack.

“It could spread to the whole planet; what do we do?” 

“I don’t - all I know is how to do is to bring them back to the container, but that means that everyone who was affected would be permanently dead,” Jack said. “We need to reprogram them, but I don’t know how to do that.” 

“Well, I don’t know how to do it either!” exclaimed Tosh, gawking at him incredulously.

“Yes, you do,” Jack said, looking into her eyes. “It’s just like programming a computer - only with a different goal in mind. You just need to make it recognize a different source as correct.”

“What?”

“Look, nanogenes are supposed to repair you. But it needs an example - a source to base all of its repairs on. Once you get to the fifty-first century, you have DNA commands and voice commands and all that. But _these_ look far more rudimentary; they’ll need to be manually programmed to accept a different source - a different example - as valid,” Jack explained. 

“Alright, fine. But what’s the example?” she asked. 

“We need someone in perfect health,” he responded. “They can’t have a single thing wrong with them, otherwise it’ll transfer over to everyone else.”

“That’ll take ages to find, Jack!” she yelled in anger. “We need a solution now! Before it takes us over.”

“Uh-” Jack pondered.. “Oh! Me!”

“What?”

“Every time I die, I come back to factory settings. I’m a perfect human - no diseases, no injuries, no health issues. All I have to do is shoot myself, get into a sterile room with some of the nanogenes and have you reprogram it to recognize me as the default.”

“But what if it passes on your immortality?” Tosh asked.

“It won’t. That’s not how it works,” Jack explained, hastily. “This is our only option. Come on.”

Jack and Tosh ran back to her workstation, where Jack opened up a box of cables. He proceeded to attach cables from the circuit of the nanogene box, affixing the other to the edge of his wrist strap. He poked a few buttons on it, and it beeped. 

Then, curiously, he took it off, and attached another cable from it to Tosh’s computer. He pressed a button on the wrist strap, and her screen turned black for a second. Then it flashed golden and changed into a black screen with white words printed on it. Examining it closer, she found that it looked like the screen of an old programming computer. 

“That should give you full access to the nanogene’s code,” he said. “I’m going to take that vial and open it in the sterile room.”

“Jack, I don’t know if I can do this - I don’t even know how the program works!” Tosh cried out. “What if I-”

“You are going to do fine,” Jack reassured her. He kissed the top of her head. “I hired you, because you are the smartest person on this planet, and I know you can do this.”

Then Jack sprinted off, and she looked back at her workstation. Tosh clicked into the program’s editor and got to work. Jack was right; it was fairly straightforward once you got into it. She delved into the base code and started reading through it. 

While she was reading, she noticed that her head was getting a little fuzzy. Tosh ignored it and kept looking through. 

She had finished skimming and started to edit when Jack’s voice spoke in her ear. 

“Alright, Tosh, I’m in the room, and I’m going to shoot myself,” said Jack through his comm. “I’m going to have to take my comm out once I release the nanogenes, so I won’t be able to talk to you. Keep working.”

“Okay, Jack,” Tosh called out. “Good luck.”

“You too,” he said. “You can do this; I believe in you.”

She looked back and continued reprogramming. 

While she worked, her eyes became droopy, and her head started pounding. Presumably the nanogenes were working on her as well. She kept on, however, and continued to code. She heard a shot through her comm, then a gasp. Jack had come back to life. It was all up to her now. 

Tosh finished the program and exited out of the base code. She’d done the best she could, now all that she could do was try it. She set the program to run, then the pressure inside her sinuses became too much to handle. Her head spun, and she finally let go, dropping onto the table and passing out. 

* * *

Ianto awoke to Jack’s face above his head. He was lying on the floor of the Medbay. A scalpel dug into his back, and he pushed it away, trying to get up.

“Hey,” Jack whispered. “Take it easy, you just woke up.”

“Did we fix it?” he rasped. 

“Yup,” Jack said, and helped him get to a sitting position. “Toshiko reprogramed the nanogenes.”

Next to him, Gwen groaned and pressed her hands against her head, eyes still closed. She mumbled something about sick leave and twisted onto her front. 

“The nanogenes will get you fixed up in a few moments; you’ll just have a small headache for a couple minutes,” Jack reassured him. “You all can take the rest of today and tomorrow off; the Rift predictor says it’ll be quiet.”

“Good because I wasn’t coming in anyway,” Owen grumbled from his other side. “We need to fucking unionize. I want better benefits.”

“Who’d be our representative?” asked Tosh, who had apparently also been moved to the Medbay when he’d fallen unconscious. 

“Gwen, obviously,” Owen said. “She already argues with him enough.”

“Oi! I do that shit for free. If I’m the union rep, then I better get paid,” Gwen said caustically. Ianto laughed. 

“We’ll start a coup if Jack doesn’t listen,” Ianto teased. “Overthrow him.”

“It’s not a very good coup if your leader can hear your plotting,” Jack said. “Now, it sounds like all of your headaches are gone, so get out of my Hub. I don’t want to see you for the next two days.”

Gwen fumbled up and gave Jack a hug and a peck on the cheek. Tosh followed suit, both women leaving the Medbay together. Owen moaned for a few seconds and pulled himself off the floor.

“I’m not giving you a kiss, you pervert,” he said sarcastically. He rolled his eyes at Jack’s pout and left. 

“Now, what to do with you?” Jack asked him. “Can you stand?”

“Yup,” said Ianto, and got to his feet. 

“C’mon,” said Jack, and Ianto followed him out. He took the silver box that had returned to resembling a box and held it under his arm. They walked up to Jack’s office, where he opened the safe and stored it safely in the secure archives. 

“You know, I swear I’ve seen that before somewhere, I just don’t remember where,” Ianto said. He tried again to remember and found nothing but a distant memory of a glowing golden light. 

“Me too,” Jack said. “I’ve been trying to figure it out. This isn’t the first time that I’ve had a run in with faulty nanogenes; I just think it’s not the second either.”

“What was the first time?” Ianto asked. 

“An extremely long story,” Jack responded.

Ianto recognized his usual pivot to avoid stories and answering questions and didn’t push. Jack was not going to answer, and no amount of prodding would change it. He wondered how he could be with someone who gave so little of himself, yet the crumbs that he offered felt like feasts. Then, Jack surprised him. 

“I’ll tell you the whole thing tonight,” Jack said, and turned around to meet Ianto’s eye. He smiled softly. 

“You’re okay,” Jack said. 

“I’m okay.”

“You know, when I saw that you had collapsed, I-” Jack paused, inching closer to him. “I didn’t know what to do.”

“Were you scared?” Ianto teased. Jack gave him a sharp look and plastered himself close to Ianto. 

“Yes,” he responded honestly. “I’ve grown...attached to you,”

“You make me sound like some kind of mold you can’t get rid of,” Ianto snarked. “Should I take offense to that?”

Jack shook his head in amusement. Then he reached forwards and kissed him, hot and hard, like he was trying to determine whether Ianto was still alive. Jack placed one of his hands on Ianto’s cheek and the other one flat on his chest, presumably feeling for his heartbeat. Ianto pulled away after a few seconds but did not let go. 

“I’m alive, Jack,” he reassured him.

“I know,” Jack responded. “Let’s go out today. That new Italian restaurant on the corner. We’ll celebrate life.”

Ianto read the hidden meaning. Let’s celebrate  _ your _ life. Let’s celebrate that  _ you’re  _ still alive. 

Ianto nodded and brought Jack back in for another kiss. 

* * *

Ianto woke up, pressed against a warm body. A blanket was swaddled around them. He pulled away and looked at Lisa’s sleeping face. 

“Hey,” he whispered, dotting little kisses down her face. “Good morning.”

Lisa groaned, pulling Ianto closer. He wrapped his arms around her, and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. 

“What time is it?” she mumbled into his chest. 

“Don’t know. Actually, I don’t remember much of yesterday. Did we go out drinking?”

“Must have,” Lisa said. “I can’t either. Still, it’s nice to have a lie-in every once in a while.”

“I love waking up next to you,” he said. “I want to do it all the time.”

Lisa extracted herself from his arms and looked up at him. She pulled his hands to her chest, and held them there. 

“Move in with me,” she said. 

“What?”

“Move in with me,” she repeated. “I love you, and I want you to move in. Plus, my flat’s bigger anyway.”

“Yes,” he said. And he pulled her on top of him to lazily kiss. Her hands went up to cup his cheeks, and he held her by her waist, moving down to cop a feel. 

“Excited, Mr. Jones?” she said, breaking away. 

“Always with you, Ms. Hallett,” he responded, moving back up for another kiss. “Besides, we’d better make the most of it right now. Yvonne told me that they’re unveiling a new project tomorrow, and we’re all going to have to put in more hours.”

“Oh?” she asked, flopping to the side and laying her head on his chest. He threaded his hands through her hair and brushed through it.

“Yeah, it’s called the Ghost Shift.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Kudos/Comments are appreciated
> 
> Find me on tumblr [here](https://violetmessages.tumblr.com/)


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